Donuts for Breakfast

My parents are visiting for Thanksgiving. For my daughter this means lots of time with grandma and grandpa, including sleepovers at their hotel. For my son this means donuts for breakfast. My parents stay at a hotel that serves a full breakfast buffet every morning. They have a wide variety of healthy choices inclucing oatmeal, fresh fruit, yogurt , eggs, whole wheat breads, and low sugar cereals. They also have an even wider variety of fun foods, including make your own fresh waffles (whip cream is available), white flour muffins, bread, and bagels, sausage, gravy, biscuits, high sugar cereals and donuts.

I do not buy donuts for my family. I try to avoid 100% white flour products and only buy cereals with less than 7 grams of sugar per serving (about 1.5 tsp.). So my son looks forward to his breakfast with his granparents. This year, at age 7, he ate 2 donuts and 1 or 2 bowls of Fruitloops for breakfast on two separate mornings, washed down with apple juice (another food I don't buy). I painfully witnessed his joy.

I am pained as I know that these fat and sugar laden donuts, completely devoid of any nutrients, are clogging his arteries. But you should see the look of pure joy on his face as my son eats his donuts. I have not seen a food give him so much pleasure since he was breast fed. My son loves me (maybe it was the breastmilk). He associates his grandparents with, among other adventures, donuts. And from an emotional standpoint this seems fine to me. My son will always have great memories of his grandparents. Who am I, a Registered Dietitian specializing in the nutrition of babies and children, to get in the way of this love?

Luckily we only eat breakfast at the hotel a couple of times a year.

Beyond the Harvest

As November comes to an end, you may have noticed that there are fewer choices of fresh, especially local, fruits and vegetables available. You may see melons, strawberries and grapes at your market but these have been imported or kept in cold storage so they are really no longer fresh, and the taste suffers. The same goes for vegetables. Many of us tend to get in a rut during the winter months, eating only apples, bananas, pears, and oranges or worse, eating very little fruit at all. Vegetable varieties are also less abundant. The lettuce looks less vibrant and the tomatoes seem to have little taste.

But winter offers us an opportunity to try some new foods we might not have tried in the abundant months when our favorites where available. There are many different types of apples. Try several different kinds in a salad with raisins and walnuts. Winter is also a good time to check out the frozen food section. You can find berries, peaches, pineapple cherries, and even mango. These fruits have no added sugar so are better for you than those canned or those dried with sugar added. Warm any of these fruits for a topping on pancakes, waffles, or even ice cream. A variety of frozen fruit is great in a smoothie. For those of you who like to bake, these frozen fruits are fine for putting in muffins and making pies. Cranberries are in season now. You can cook your own or buy them dried or in a sauce or syrup.

Vegetables are generally heartier than fruits, so many have longer growing seasons. Carrots are at their sweetest now, as they develop more sugar as they mature in the ground. Leafy vegetables including broccoli, cabbage, kale, collards and cauliflower are still available. Any of these would be great in a simple stir fry with your favorite meat, poultry, seafood or tofu. Discover something new this winter- ever try parsnips, rutabaga, kohlrabi, Jerusalem artichokes, chard or beets? Most winter vegetables are great for roasting (baking at a high heat) and many other recipes can be found on the inter net.

Winter is also a wonderful time for a chopped salad. A food processor really helps with this, just chop red and green cabbage, Jerusalem artichokes and carrots together. This hearty salad is great with warm crusty bread and cheese for a light dinner. Some fruits go well in a lettuce salad. Try using very thin slices of apples or pears or some canned or fresh mandarin orange sections with sliced almonds.

If you are not one to do too much in the kitchen, at least try out the different kinds of potatoes and squash. Potatoes come in all sizes and many colors, including yams, sweet potatoes, red and even purple potatoes. You can bake, boil or roast any of these. There are also many different kinds of squash. Don't let the color or size intimidate you. Squash are not just for decoration, they are for eating and they are as easy to cook as a baked potato. For most squash all you need to do is cut it in half, scrape out the seeds and bake on a lightly greased pan at 375 degrees for approximately 1 hour. The squash should be soft to the touch when done. You can serve them in their shells or scrape out the inside and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon.

Winter is here, but that doesn't mean that fruits and vegetables are gone. Challenge yourself to include something new at least once a week. You'll be amazed at what you discover.

Why Do You Think They Call It Formula?

Many parents ask me if they should use baby formula or formulas for children after their first birthday. For the vast majority of children the answer is no. By one year of age a child should be eating enough quantity and variety of solid foods to meet their nutritional needs.

Toddler formulas were created to enlarge the market share for baby formula companies. After all, what company wants to have to replace their customers every year, wouldn’t it be better to keep customers for at least 2 years? So by creating a new product they can extend their market. Toddler formulas contain many important nutrients. But a product containing all of these nutrients, is more like a food than a drink. Reliance on theses products may result in a child who relies on the formula for energy and sustenance but does not learn to develop a taste for a variety of foods. Your child will be drawn to the nutrients that they need. It is always preferable to obtain nutrients from their natural original source; food. The more a food is processed or created in a lab, the less like food it really is. Why do you think they call it FORMULA?

All of the nutrients found in toddler formulas can and should be taken in from food. The early years are critical for allowing a child to learn to accept a variety of tastes and textures. Children need to learn how to chew and swallow different types of foods. It is a time for children to learn to enjoy the color, touch and smell of new foods. It is also a time for a child to learn about all of the joys of eating with family and friends.

So let your child eat what you’re eating. Except those who are avoiding certain foods due to allergies, all foods are fair game. Offer food of an appropriate consistency and size to avoid choking, but don’t limit your child’s choices to standard “kid food”. Many 1 year olds can eat meat loaf, tender chicken cut into small bits, or fish (no bones). The more choices you offer now, the wider range of acceptability your child will have as an adult.

Less is More

I was at my son's school picking him up early the day of his Halloween party. Of course there was the general chaos with children moving around in costume and from activity to activity. But what got my attention was the food table and an activity table.

The food table was covered with, of course, food. I remember seeing both fun foods and healthy foods: carrot sticks, grapes, apples, edamame, goldfish shaped crackers, puffed cheese balls, and pretzels. But there was even more food that I don't remember. One activity table where children were to decorate a ball of clay with beads and noodle and other do-dads was covered with a very large choice of decorations.

I don't believe that having more of everything than one could possibly use is necessary or particularly helpful. Many of us with access to resources over provide for our children. This does not help create a child that values what is, or a child that appreciates what is given. I don't believe that a child needs a 6 foot long buffet of food to make a party successful. I remember being quite happy with my one ghost shaped cookie and small (maybe 1/4 cup) container of ice cream at my school halloween party. The idea of a treat was what the excitement was about, not the actual treat. Especially as my peers and myself all came from families that had the resources to provide food and celebrate holidays on a regular basis. A craft project with too many choices does not necessarily encourage creativity or enhance results. It results in a mess. It is amazing the results 10 different children create when each are given a lump of clay and 3 or 4 types of do-dads to adorn it with.

I am embarrassed by the opulence of it all. These are children that are almost all from upper middle class homes or above. They have birthday and holiday parties regularly in their homes and are invited to parties regularly outside of school. These children have been exposed to restaurants, shopping malls and grocery stores where everything is available and displayed in very attractive settings. These are children that want for nothing, they have clothes, heat, food, vacations away from home, toys, books, large screen TVs, computers, parents with cars, and opportunities for all sorts of extra curricular lessons after school.

So how do we teach our children to appreciate what they have and learn to realize that not everyone has access to what they have, see and expect on a daily basis? How do we change their expectations? How do we teach them to slow down and really appreciate what they have? We could start by toning down parties and celebrations at school and even at home. We could put our resources into schools that may not have the parents with the ability to provide even the cookie for the Halloween party. We could package up our party paraphernalia and instead of using it for our children, pass it on to those who don't have enough for these extras. Instead of providing too much for our children, we could help others by taking nutritious foods to food banks, not just at holidays, but year round. There are many ways to "spread the wealth", lets' teach our children how it's done.